Dallas Goedert Camp Update — August 23: Featured Again in the Red Zone

Dallas Goedert caught a red-zone touchdown from Jalen Hurts at Thursday's joint practice in Foxborough, per Dave Zangaro at NBC Sports Philadelphia — the second week running that Hurts has found him in the scoring area, and the first time it happened against another team's defense rather than Philadelphia's own. On a Thursday when Hurts threw two interceptions to the same Patriots cornerback, the tight end was one of the throws that worked.

He did not play Saturday, when no starters dressed in the 24 to 21 loss at New England, per Reuben Frank at NBC Sports Philadelphia, so there is still no game usage to count. The room around him shifted slightly in his favor: backup Grant Calcaterra missed the entire week with a back injury, per Josh Alper at NBC Sports' Pro Football Talk and Zangaro's daily reports, which concentrated the first-team tight end work on Goedert through the most valuable practice week of camp. In the game itself, the tight end catches went to Stone Smartt, five for 37 yards, per Dave Spadaro at the team's website — backup production in a backup game.

Back in June the math on Goedert said last season's 11 touchdowns, after years of never topping five, were due to settle, with his steady five-and-a-half targets a game the durable part — and the one upward caveat was that A.J. Brown's vacated target share could flow inside. Two straight weeks of feature-role reporting and red-zone looks from Hurts are that caveat showing up on film, still practice-grade until the starters play.

The checkable things: whether Goedert plays and draws targets if the starters see any preseason action before rosters cut to 53 on Sunday, August 30, and whether the red-zone-first-read pattern survives DeVonta Smith's return to full practice. We'll check after cut day.

_Data via nflverse._